Name RMMV Stirling Castle Port of registry London, UK Launched 15 August 1935 Draft 9.8 m | Namesake Stirling Castle Yard number 941 Length 221 m Builder Harland and Wolff | |
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Operator Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. Route Southampton, Las Palmas, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban | ||
RMMV Stirling Castle was a British ocean liner of the Union-Castle Line built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the Southampton to South Africa mail service. She was launched on 15 August 1935 and was the first of two identical sister ships, being joined a few months later by the Athlone Castle. A third, slightly larger, ship of the class, the Capetown Castle, joined them in 1938
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Propulsion
Her two Burmeister & Wain engines were built by Harland and Wolff under licence, and were the largest marine oil engines constructed in Britain until then. Each driving a single screw, they were double-acting 10-cylinder marine two-stroke diesels developing 24,000 hp with bore x stroke 26 inches (66 cm) x 59 inches (150 cm). Each engine was 34 feet (10 m) high from the centre of the crankshaft, 72 feet (22 m) long and weighed 900 long tons (1,000 short tons).
Service
Stirling Castle left Southampton on her maiden voyage on 7 February 1936. In August of that year she set a new record for the route, reaching Table Bay in 13 days 9 hours, beating the previous record of 14 days, 18 hours, and 57 minutes set by SS Scot in 1893.
During World War II, Stirling Castle was used as a troopship, coming through the war unscathed after steaming some 505,000 miles and carrying 128,000 personnel. She was released from government service in 1946 and was refitted by her builders, returning to passenger service in 1947. In 1946, she sailed before being refitted from Southampton on August 31 for.Australia arriving at Fremantle on 28 th September. The mail service was accelerated in 1965 and Stirling Castle and her sisters had insufficient speed to maintain the new schedule. They were replaced by two new fast cargo ships (the new schedule required only seven ships rather than eight) and Stirling Castle was withdrawn from service upon arrival at Southampton on 30 November 1965. A proposed sale to Taiwan breakers (where her sister had gone two months earlier) fell through and she was instead sold for scrapping in Japan. She left Southampton on 1 February 1966 for Mihara where she arrived on 3 March 1966 to be broken up by Nichimen Co.